Austrian prosecutor's office considers Ramzan Kadyrov involved in the murder of Umar Israilov

The Austrian state board on protecting the constitution and fighting terrorism (LVT) has recognized Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov responsible for the organization of kidnapping and murder of his former body-guard Umar Israilov, runs the agency report made public by the Vienna prosecutor's office on April 27.

For reference, on April 26 the Vienna prosecutor's office announced that Ramzan Kadyrov's adviser Shaa Turlayev was accessorial to the murder of Umar Israilov, as his documents had been found in the car of the suspected participant of the crime.

At the same time, the Austrian investigators recognize that they only have indirect evidence, but they claim that all executors of the crime were to various degrees connected with Kadyrov.

In particular, the investigators have a photograph from the memory of the mobile phone belonging to Otto Kaltenbrunner, the suspected organizer of the crime, where he is photographed together with the Chechen president.

According to the theory of the investigators, the photograph was made shortly before the attempt on Israilov in Chechnya where  Kaltenbrunner had ostensibly come for "final instructions" concerning Israilov, reports "Gazeta.Ru".

Proceeding from this and other indirect evidence, the counter-terrorist board makes a conclusion that "Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov issued an order last year to kidnap in Vienna the Chechen who had made revelatory statements; in the course of the kidnapping, the man was deadly wounded", reports the American newspaper The New York Times.

When presenting the LVT report, Walter Gerkhard Yarosh, head of the Vienna prosecutor's office press service, underlined that the question is about kidnapping, and not about murdering: "It seems that a kidnapping was planned, rather than a murder, but things got wrong when the kidnapping operation failed", he explained.

According to Yarosh, the investigators have come to a conclusion that, with a high degree of probability, a true Chechen spy network acted in Austria, collecting information about Chechens who applied for political asylum in the country.

Still, the official representative of Vienna prosecutor's office has refused to answer a direct question on whether Kadyrov personally gave an order to his guards to kill Israilov, reports ARA agency.

The prosecutor's office is shortly going to lay official charges against the three possible participants of Israilov's murder, whom they managed to arrest.

For reference, Otto Kaltenbrunner, organizer of the kidnapping, Muslim Dadayev (he spied on Israilov and drove the car of the kidnappers) and Turpal Ali Esherkayev have been taken into custody under this case. The latter with one more accomplice attacked Israilov and, when he broke from the kidnappers, ran after him.

Lecha Bogatirov, the fourth participant in the case, is suspected of making three shots on Israilov from his pistol. However, after the murder, he left Austria and, as the investigators assume, returned to Russia.

The Chechen president himself categorically denies the charges of organizing kidnappings and murders. Alvi Karimov, his official representative, refuted the charges of Austrian prosecutors in an interview to the Reuters agency.